Vehicle safety restraint



y 1958 D. c. LUCHT 2,833,344

VEHICLE SAFETY RESTRAINT Filed D60. 27, 1955 1 INVENTOR.

F|G 4 Donald C. Lucht Unite States Patent 'SA'FETTYRESTRAINT Donald C;Lucht, Harrington, Wash.

Application December 27, 1955;?Seri21l No.-555',-564

2 Claims. (Cl. 155-189) This invention is a safety restraint for childoccupants of vehicles.

The principal object of the invention lies in providing means forrestraining the forward movement of a child off of the seat of a vehiclein the event deceleration of the vehicle is rapid. This is accomplishedby providing a vest-like garment which is adjustable in size to fit thetrunks of children of different sizes, and having eyes or rings forreleasably securing the garment to anchoring means fixed relative to theseat of the vehicle and including straps and catches.

Another, object of the invention lies in the provision of novel meansfor adjusting the size of a garment.

Still a further object of the invention lies in the provision of avest-like garment having pressure distributing webs secured to the frontportions thereof.

These and other important objects of the invention will become apparentduring a reading of the accompanying specification taken in conjunctionwith the drawing, wherein like numerals are employed to designate likeparts.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a child wearing the safetyrestraint constituting the subject matter of this invention and with avehicle seat shown in broken lines;

Figure 2 is a vertical elevation of a seat showing the anchoring meansand accompanying straps and catches forming a part of the safetyrestraint;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a vest-like garment constituting aportion of the safety restraint;

Figure 4 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view showing theadjustable fastening means of the garment; and

Figure 5 is a fragmentary enlarged perspective view of the end of thetubular member 34.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, I disclose a child orinfant as sitting upon the seat cushion 38 of the vehicle seat andwearing the vest-like garment 12 which forms a part of the restraint. Itwill be seen that the garment 12 is sleeveless and covers theshoulders,chest, and torso downwardly to include the Waist, and therefore theapproximate weight center of the childs body is covered. The garment isadjustable to the trunk size of children of different sizes and may beemployed to restrain the movements of an infant from the seat in theevent the vehicle is stopped suddenly.

The adjustability is accomplished by means of an adjustable fasteningmeans 14, which is here shown to be one of the slide fastener typehaving one series of elements 16 on one edge of the front opened vestand another series of elements 18 on the opposed edge. To provideadjustability, a third series of elements 20 adapted to cooperate withthe series of elements 16"is stitched at 22 to the garment 12 spacedfrom the series of elements 18. Therefore the slide fastener may beoperated with either the series of elements 16 and 18 cooperating asshown in Figure 1, or with the'elements 16 and 20 cooperating for asmaller sized child.

2,833,344 Patented May 6 19 58 Pressure clistributingwebs' 24. arestitched "or otherwise 'i's'ec'ured at 26 "(Figure '3') on the front;portions "of the "garment'lzand afpointsspace'tffromieach"other. .From

the"sides, "each 'web :24 has H plural members which con- 5 wage to"asingle' pointiwhere"they:secure: an anchor ring '28, thus'providing'tone anchor'ring at each 'side" of "the garmenttowardthe"backthereof.

'Itfmay' be ifonnd. desirable when employed .to restrainaminfanttosecure t'w'o'ringslas 28', shownlin broken line 10 "ofFigure 3sothat an"infant"maylie*orr itssideand still be restrained from slidingoff of the seat 10. These rings 28 may be secured by webs 24 which mayextend to the front and secure at the points 26 or be secured in theside seam 30 of the garment 12.

Anchoring means 32 are employed to restrain movement of the child off ofthe seat, and this means comprises an elongated tubular member 34, hereshown to be triangular in shape but which also may be round or square orany other shape desired. The member 34 is adapted to be forced betweenthe back rest 36 and the seat cushion 38 of the seat 10, and byfrictional engagement therein hold the straps 40-40 against movementbeyond a certain point toward the front edge of the seat. These strapsmay be resilient to assist in cushioning the deceleration of the childin severe instances, although it is not necessary that they be such topractice the invention.

Snap type fasteners 42-42 are carried by the free ends of the straps 40.and'the straps are supplied with buckles 44-44 which provide foradjustability of the length thereof. The ends of the straps opposed tothe fasteners 42 are disposed in encircling relation to the member 34and are riveted at 46 and secured against accidental removal from themember 34.

It will thus be seen that when the vehicle is caused to deceleraterapidly and an infant or child would normally fall from the seatthereof, the safety restraint will prevent its being carried forward andthus prevent injury and bruising of the child.

Preferably the tubular member 34 is formed of resilient 40 material benttriangular in shape and having converging front walls 48-48 terminatingin an angular bend 50 which urges the walls 48-48 toward a straightposition wherein the walls 48-48 are disposed in a common plane. Attheir rearward ends, the walls 48-48 are bent at 52 to form rear walls54 and 56. The wall 56 is seen to be provided with a plurality ofexternal pressed bosses 58 and the wall 54 is disposed at an acute anglewithrelationship to its wall 48 so that the lower edge 60 thereof willcoop- 50 erate with the bosses 58 to prevent collapsing of the tubularmember 34 by flexing at the bend 50.

To facilitate insertion of the tubular member 34 between the backrest 36and the seat cushion 38, the wall 56 is depressed, increasing the bend52 and the tubular member is collapsed as far as the wall 56 willpermit. The tubular. member is then inserted between the seat cushion 38and the back rest 36 and released, and the tension at bend 50 will causethe walls 54 and 56 to spread. The cooperation of the bosses 58 and theedge 60 60 then will secure the member 34 against collapsing, thereforepreventing its accidental removal from between the back rest 36 and theseat cushion 38.

Having thus'described my invention, I claim:

1. A safety restraint for a child occupant of vehicles comprising avest-like garment; adjustable fastening means for releasably securingthe garment successively about the trunks of children of differentsizes; pressure distributing webs secured to said garment at the frontthereof and at vertically spaced locations relative to the trunk of achild; the webs at each side converging to and carrying an anchor ring;straps having catches at their free ends releasably secured to saidrings; and means at the opposed ends of said straps adapted tofrictionally secure the References Cited inthe file of this patent"straps relative'to aveliicle seat. l

2. In a safety restraint for child occupants of vehicles UNITED STATESPATENTS having agarment for releasablysecuringa child and straps1,369,456 Mm'edlth 1921 earned thereby,'a tubular anchor membefcarriedbythe 5 1,529,165 Carroll 10, 1925 free ends of 'said' straps andcomprising a hollow collapsible 2,007,075 Clements I 3/ 2, 1935resilient tube having a normal bias to expand circumfer- 2448076 VBliad'ley 31, 1948 entially, and manually releasablelo'ckingmeansintegral 2,498,471 Wllhams 9 0 with thetube fort-limitingcircumferential collapsing move- 21589916 13, 1952 mentof said tube,wherebyhthe tube may be manually 10 2,753,759 Nunn et a1 14, 9

collapsed for insertion between a seat and cooperating FOR N PATENTSback and automatically will expand andlock in the ex- 140,013 Sweden Apt21, 1953 panded position against subsequent collapsing movement.

